In the manufacture of decorative trim panels for use as interior decoration on automobile doors, boat interiors, baby carriages, etc., it has become common practice to bond onto the surface of a vinyl sheeting, by dielectric means, a decorative colored or metallized vinyl extruded molding.
Currently the usual practice is to use a base board of compressed wood fibers known in the trade as "hard board", a layer of bonded fibers or soft foam of urethane or vinyl thereover to provide a cushioning effect, and a top layer of vinyl sheeting with or without a backing fabric as the finished surface of the panel. The vinyl sheeting may have an embossed grain, and further decorative effects are obtained by embossing lines, simulated stitching, geometric patterns, etc. on the face of the panel and at the same time bonding the molding strip or strips thereto. The strips or moldings may be in the form of straight lines, curved pieces or frames, as desired.
To further enhance the decorative effect it may be desired to use different colors or grains of vinyl sheeting in different areas of the panel. If the different colored areas are delineated by the moldings, it is practical and convenient to conceal the color break by using the molding to cover the adjoining edges of the different colored materials. This simplifies manufacture by reducing the required degree of accuracy of cutting and placing the different colored materials during fabrication.
Using existing techniques, however, it is necessary that the different substrates placed under the decorative molding or strip have essentially the same dielectric bonding properties.
Such limitations become undesirable as designs become more sophisticated, and it is an object of the present invention to provide improved means for bonding such decorative metallized or colored strips or moldings to adjacent areas of substrate materials having markedly different dielectric bonding characteristics.
On one side of the strip there might be, for instance, the vinyl sheeting which up to now has been the normal material for this type of structure, while on the other side of the "color break" there could be a fabric such as nylon sateen, which is notably difficult to bond to.
Other objects and advantages will become apparent upon consideration of the present disclosure in its entirety.